Film Reviews by MR

Big Ghibli fan on the whole and part of that is due to the slower pacing of the films compared to film-making in the West; however, this did not transpose well into a lengthy 26 part series. The middle third of this series really sagged and I struggled to maintain interest throughout. The series looked fantastic, but of course it is when it's being put out by arguably the greatest animation studio on the planet. The English dub was also let-down by some fairly hammy voice acting that I found really jarring, other than a delightful narration from Gillian Anderson. If you are a big Ghibli fan you will, like me, watch this regardless; however, it is certainly no starting point. For completisits only.

I found this film frustrating to watch and a tad on the tedious side. I had high hopes from the ensemble cast and I can't fault either the acting or the direction (I'm usually a fan of David O Russell's work). However, the characters quirks came across all sub-par Wes Anderson and the script just failed to flow and develop. On paper this film should have hit the spot with my sense of humour, but I was rarely amused.

While this film is well directed (naturally, it's Boyle) and acted, with a stunning soundtrack and visually stunning in places and avoids some of the cliches of the genre, it still felt like it was going through the motions - yet another space movie where the crew divert from their mission (after much deliberation) only to find themselves facing adversity in the shape of a deranged bad guy, with crew members being picked off one by one. The undeveloped nature of the characters and complete lack of any charisma or humour, while probably more realistic for a ship full of space-nerds on a mission to save humanity meant I felt no emotional pull towards them and did not care for their collective fates. Just another film shaped on Heart of Darkness really and not worth a re-watch.